Thursday, January 1, 2009

differences in Charleston

Baby Hugh is my new hero

well,we just got back from Charleston,South Carolina...Yeah,I love when people react to that.  They expect southern california,disneyland,something....but alas,not Charleston...home of my sister in laws and their new baby,Baby Hugh ,who read this blog,and actually got us a present inspired by the blog...
ok, now you get to take a quiz...
what did my sister in laws give us for christmas inspired by my blog
A)  A WANT YOU....A Bread Retrospective...four disks
B)  An Outback Gift Card
C)  The Heart of Rock and Roll, the Huey Lewis autobiography
D)  A new father.
the answer is B.
Well, in consideration of those of you who have never been to South Carolina,here are some differences.

NAMES...We stayed in a rental house,and it had a name..The Goat Patch...Does that sound like a three story, three bedroom,three bathroom,four tv mansion across the street from the ocean?  I mean,not only do things have names,but weird names...some you can't figure out...Puff's Little Dream, Editor's View, Stubby and Short,   other's are a little clearer,  Max's Tax Shelter, Dolphin's Run, Drug Money Hideaway... and others are just jokes...Juan in a million,  Grouper Therapy,  Life's a beach then you buy....
How do these names occur?  Do you buy and name?  Do you name and then buy?
and the other thing is that everybody has nicknames....My former brother in law is named James Dowell Gandy iii, and is nicknamed Tripp, My nephew James Dowell Gandy iv is nicknamed Dowell,my new nephew is named Houston Hill Hollinger and is called Hugh.  In my stays I have met Gator....I want to meet a girl nicknamed Manatee.
and names are different anyway...Of course we are the standard bearers for names here...I have taught Summer,Winter,Spring and Autumn in the same year.  I know of Zephyr(two), Rio,Diva, Justice,Alabama...
in charleston there are people named Remington and Hampton...

SMOKING....people smoke...well,you are in tobaccoville...but I swear to god....a couple of times I would come from a bar and have to say,"I smell like smoke"...
We're talking smoke signals,campfires, the towering inferno...
So,my mother in law,who tends to have opinions and theories about things, says "Well,you have to understand that this is tobacco country" and in my mind I thought "and that makes them impervious to cancer".

BARBECUE...Ok,hatfields and mccoys, Cal vs Stanford, The Smothers Brothers vs. CBS,nothing has topped the great barbecue rivalry...Let me tell ya that being a late boomer cal suburb kid
I was never esposed to real barbecue...that stuff with the charcoal and the sauce,and dad with the sauce brush on sundays...that is grilling.  Barbecue is a religion...actually,more defined but equally as devout amongst the followers.  I was first exposed to the actual art of barbecue when I had a play in Kansas city.  Walking into Gates BBQ with women shouting "HI can I help you?",a super variety of sauces and smells,and ribs,and burnt ends,and sandwiches and brisket...oh my!!!  But in KC everybody  aligns with different barbecue places,the most revered being Arthur Bryants. When Arthur Bryant died there was an editorial cartoon where he went to heaven, and a robed figure asked him..."did you bring sauce?"....
but barbecue is not sauce,it is smoking,and rubs,and(Oh my god ,it sounds like a college party).
But no matter how many people tell you barbecue is not sauce,the lines seem to be drawn in that way...and South Carolina barbecue is pork!!!!and mustard based sauce....  Now,my mother in law is a devout Kansas City Smokestack follower.  One time we wanted mustard based barbecue and she wouldn't eat it.  
but I have to tell ya,any barbecue that is in front of me is my friend, and mustard based is amazing...it is haunting,haunting did you hear me,haunting,and I can stop anytime I want...

but isn't it funny that people need that way to define who they are.  There was a record store that alphabetized everything by artists instead of by genre....then there was a sign that said "Music is Music"....A lot of people hated that store.

CIVIL WAR...
Sometimes ya want to say  "It's over"...but South Carolina is the cradle of the Civil War,where the first shots were fired,literally.  So never say The Civil War...it is the war of northern aggression,or the recent unpleasantness...  
but considering that our richest history in Fairfax happened when Van Morrison walked the streets,or when Irving Berlin played piano in a treehouse for tourists in the 20's,South Carolina,with it's pirate attacks (Blackbeard was 6'5 and put smoking stuff in his beard to scare people),places bearing literally the idea of of George Washington Sleeping There....pretty amazing...

BUT these things remain the same....We went to Charleston to celebrate the birth of a child...No,not little baby Jesus, but baby Hugh, my sister in laws' baby boy born on December 20th.  A labor of love and determination and science and nature and wonder and family,Baby Hugh is a wonder.  One thing that is the same is that Hugh is loved,by his two moms,his grandparents,his 16 year old brother,and the world.  Thornton Wilder once said that each baby born is natures attempt at achieving perfection, and Hugh is no exception,but no one expects him to be perfect.  We are a family that loves him,and his prescence on this planet..and hopefully that is the same as everywhere else.

2 comments:

kudzu said...

Love this post. I know the area well.

As for barbecue: it is more than territorial, it is sacred. Sauces are sometimes classified by county lines, in the South. I will invite you someday to taste my family's version (from northern Georgia)and you will be really, really haunted.

Welcome to Baby Hugh. It sounds like he happened to the right people (or vice-versa).

suzee said...

Two great posts! I promise to see Milk, and I'm really going to have to get to barbecue country again, soon, 'cause after all this talk about it, I'm perpetually starved.

I'd even take that slice of white bread on the bottom of the plate with the sauce, at this point.